Sprint and Telefónica to Create Global Advertising Alliance

Sprint and Telefónica to Create Global Advertising Alliance
Combination to deliver significant global scale with potential to reach more
than 370 million customers across their combined territories in the United
States, Europe and Latin America
Collaboration across personalized direct messaging, display ads,
location-based offers and in-app advertising
Business Wire
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & LONDON -- February 20, 2013
Sprint (NYSE:S) today announced that it has joined with Telefónica to create
one of the largest mobile advertising alliances in the world.
Through this agreement, between Telefónica Digital, the digital innovation arm
of Telefónica, and Pinsight Media+, powered by Sprint, the two companies will
collaborate on ways to enable global brands to potentially reach more than 370
million mobile customers across the United States, Europe and Latin America
with targeted advertising.
As investment in mobile advertising accelerates, global brands are
increasingly seeking media partners who can deliver insights and access to
scaled audiences at a global level.
The alliance between Telefónica Digital and Pinsight Media+ will deliver
obvious benefits to advertisers through the potential for increased audience
reach across key regions, including the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom
and Germany, with a portfolio of impactful advertising formats that are
powered by deep customer insights.
Together, Sprint and Telefónica will explore efficient ways of providing
global advertisers and agencies with new and easier options to plan
multicountry mobile campaigns. The intention is that the network will grow
further in scale, particularly to include Asia.
“Telefónica Digital has led the way in Europe and Latin America in mobile
advertising, championing consumer privacy, innovative targeting and impactful
formats to create a fresh approach for brands to reach their most relevant
customers with the right message at the optimal time,” said Simon Birkenhead,
director of Global Advertising Sales at Telefónica Digital. “Joining forces
with Pinsight Media+ extends Telefónica’s geographic reach and builds on our
ongoing strategy to make it easier for global brands to gain access to global
audiences, no matter where they reside.”
“This agreement fulfills a need in the advertising market for meeting the
mobile advertising requirements of global brands,” said Mike Cooley, vice
president of New Ventures at Sprint. “Through this alliance, we are seeking to
efficiently expand our capabilities to deliver mobile marketing solutions for
U.S.-based advertisers into Europe and Latin America, while Telefónica Digital
aims to do the same for their regional customers in the United States.”
Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world with
more than 314 million customers across 25 countries. It has been pioneering
mobile advertising, particularly in the United Kingdom, since 2009. Its global
advertising team offers a range of mobile and online advertising services,
including permission-based direct messaging, display ads, location-based
offers programs and ad-funded consumer services. It currently works with
global brands to connect them with customers at the most opportune moments and
with a degree of relevancy and engagement not offered by other media
providers.
At the heart of the Pinsight Media+ service is Sprint’s commitment to provide
customers transparency and privacy choices for interest-based targeted
advertising. Building on the existing segmentation targeting used today,
Pinsight Media+ allows customers to choose whether they would like to share
anonymous information about the way they use their mobile device. Pinsight
Media+ then uses this information to provide targeted ads on Sprint-owned and
-operated properties, such as Sprint Web on-deck portal for mobile and Sprint
Zone.
Sprint customers will continue to see advertisements online and in
ad-supported applications and content, regardless of whether they have opted
in to receive usage-based targeted ads. If a user chooses to opt in, the
interest-based targeted ads will be more relevant to the user’s personal
interests.
Building cross-operator cooperation is becoming increasingly important in a
sector where scale matters. In addition to the agreement with Pinsight Media+,
Telefónica has also created the Weve joint venture in the United Kingdom with
Vodafone and Everything Everywhere to accelerate the development of mobile
marketing and m-commerce services in that region. Telefónica is committed to
further partnerships in order to meet the needs of global advertisers.
Telefónica will be hosting an event on building cross-operator cooperation at
this year’s Mobile World Congress, including presentations by both Weve and
Sprint. Click here for more info.
About Telefónica Digital
Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is
to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for
Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global
partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising,
M2M and eHealth. It is also driving innovation in over the top communications
under a new umbrella brand called TU and in Big Data through Telefónica
Dynamic Insights.
Telefónica Digital will deliver these new products and services to
Telefónica's 314 million customers as well as entering new markets. It is
headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paulo,
Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, TokBox, Media Networks Latin America, 48 and
giffgaff are all managed under the Telefónica Digital umbrella.
To sign up for news alerts and read commentary on Telefónica Digital, visit
www.telefonica.com/digitalhub and track them on Twitter @tefdigital
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline
communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers,
businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 55 million
customers at the end of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing,
engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first
wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering
industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin
Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and
international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet
backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among
all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all
47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in
both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s
greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can
learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and
www.twitter.com/sprint.
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Contact:
Telefónica Digital
Nick Wilkins, 408-840-9873
Nick.wilkins@telefonica.com
or
Sprint
John Votava, 949-748-3403
John.votava@sprint.com